After the final judgment, the absolute
end of this world will come; angels and men excepted, everything that belongs to
this world will be burnt up by fire and reduced to nothing. 656[1] Not a transformation
of the world, therefore, but an absolute annihilation of its substance is to be
expected. [2]

[1] BR. (385): “When the judgment shall have been finished, the end
of the world will immediately follow, whereby heaven and earth, and likewise the
other elements and the bodies composed of elements will, with respect to their substance,
perish by means of fire.” HOLL. (1273): “The consummation of the world is an action
of the triune God, by which, to the glory of His truth, power, and justice, and
the deliverance of elect men, He will destroy with fire and annihilate the entire
fabric of heaven and earth, and all created things, intelligent creatures alone
excepted.” Of the means by which God will destroy the world (HOLL., 1275): “God
will destroy the world by means of true and proper fire (2 Pet. 3:12); but the power
and nature of this no mortal is able to investigate.”